Neighbours at war: Woman jailed

A Rotorua woman who had a violent dispute with her neighbour has been jailed for two years and nine months. Moana Ngahoro Dixon, 30, was sentenced by Judge James Weir in the Rotorua District Court this week.

As Dixon left the courtroom her supporters yelled that the ruling was unfair. Dixon had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of injuring with intent to injure after a dispute between neighbours turned violent.

The 40-year-old woman Dixon attacked suffered cuts and bruising and needed surgery for a broken elbow.

The attack was the culmination of several altercations on November 18 last year between the woman and a 15-year-old neighbour, who also assaulted the woman's daughter.

According to the police summary of facts, the woman had already been assaulted by the 15-year-old - knocked to the ground in her Bellingham Cres driveway and punched and kicked after the teen had assaulted her 14-year-old daughter.

The 15-year-old and friends who had accompanied her on her first visit to the neighbour's returned a short time later and punched the younger teenager in the head several times. The woman intervened and told them to leave, which they did.

However, the older teen and a friend again went to the woman's house, forcing entry. The woman had armed herself with a knife and after a fight broke out she cut the teenager in the chest.

The teenager, who suffered superficial cuts, ran off but moments later, Dixon and other members of her family ran to the woman's home and demanded to know why she had stabbed the teenager. The woman explained the girl had attacked her but Dixon punched her about the face, forcing her into the kitchen where she fell to the floor. Dixon and two associates kicked and punched her about the head, face and body.

Judge Weir said Dixon had a history of offending and needed to realise she was responsible for her own actions.